ever notice those raised under/or practice "alternative" religions and atheist are far more accepting then alot of those raised under/practiceing "abrahamic" religions.  i always wondered why that is

yep, i noticed that a lot too. Like in the US, the most liberal are usually the least religious, while the most biased people are usually very religious people- this isn't a cause and effect scenario, just that most abrahamic religions preach limiting the mind and believing in the supernatural or traditional. Christians/ (the second abrahamic religion that i am scared of mentioning because i dont want to be slaughtered) believe just based on faith and not critical thinking, and in the same vein most of their beliefs are based on instinct and not critical judgment.
Judaism is interesting because there  is a wide spectrum of practitioners, from Orthodox, Hasidic, to nonpractising jews.

Which kain religion be dat? Grin Grin

Abeg make I introduce you to my church jare. Every sunday we dey observe naked service

i no dey go cherubim and seraphim.

To be serious, if you believe in all the tenets of christianity- the classical tenets to say- then you are prevented from being very openminded about certain things. Halloween could be seen a s worshipping another god, when it just means dressing up having fun and such.

Now bring it to nigeria, where people are pathologically religious, while being totally ignorant about christianity in general. Halloween is a western celebration, i dont really care much about it, but I am using it as an example of why religious fanaticism/fundamentalism makes it difficult for us to progress

So you wanna come up again with another fallacy? Now hear this, chritianity is never a Religion ok? thats is a practical truth, religions were made from Christainity. Obviously u are a polytheist. I need not to waste time here. Perhaps all u want us to do is to wish YOU " hAPPY HALLOWEEN" are u satisfied?

idiot. See how christianity is breeding a society of mindless zombies.

mbulela:

my problem was with your wanton generalization and Christian bashing.
every form of belief comes with a measure of faith, even atheism.
anyone hoping for or claiming certainty before belief is delusional.
to each man his own faith and belief but it is impossible having believed not grow in your certainty of your belief.
if you believe your faith is the same like every other system of belief or way of life, then you of all men most miserable.
you must come to a point where you believe that the path you are travelling is the right path and in forsaking other paths, you believe that they are wrong.Yet you must be matured enough to believe that not all men will walk your path and it is not by force.
even if Jesus appeared today to the world in physical form and erased every doubt about his sonship of the Godhead,there will still be unbelievers.same with other deities in other faiths.

what generalization?  i was talking about the 3 people she and i have been arguing with all night.  the ones who dont care enough not only to understand other peoples religions but to be soo devout not to understand the many petals of thier own religion. like the quote above

Oh God! Another dumb post by a prolific slowpoke who wants to be more american than the americans. Wondering why the white house never celebrated new yam festival or why americans refuse to shift their independence celebration to oct. 1 so that we celebrate it together. Another case of identity crisis and 'wanna be' and this slowpoke would be among the future leaders of this country. Nigeria is in trouble

halloween is an american culture, bla bla bla
do i need to say more lol, if u want excitement, go to d village n join in some iniciation rites, i guess its as scary as halloween. pumpkin

yawn

lovemoi2:

yawn

Hallo-what?

6 pages?
this thread should be closed now, we all pretty much know the answer to this.

EVEN D AMERICANS DO NOT TAKE HALLOWEEN AS SERIOUS AS WE ARE TAKING IT IN NAIRALAND. WHY DO NIGERIANS LYK TO PROMOTE FOREIGN CULTURES AND CAN'T PROMOTE OURS?? WHAT HAS HALLOWEEN GOT 2 DO WITH NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT?? I'M SORRY 4 NAIJA.

A very dumb question, we all are mad @ OBJ concering festac 77 and here u come talking about halloween! Y nat ask why study of witchry and wizardary aint legalised in our schools? The same answer u get is that of halloween!
Some cultist and demonic cacus organised some stupid celebration, and u never care to find out how it started?

The eyo festival in lagos is nat a fetish free one at al,u want halloween here and I trust my 9ja ppl, they will incorporate bloodbath to it!

Countries where people actually buy and sell body parts in the local market probably don't celebrate Halloween. They prefer the Christian holidays.

Hello Naira landers the word Halloween means the eve of all saint 31 Oct.

Hello Naira landers the word Halloween means the eve of all saint 31 Oct.

Hello Naira landers the word Halloween means the eve of all saint 31 Oct.

^^^^

how many times will you post that?
let me guess, posting from mobile.
that always seems to be the case.

What the hell is Halloween?

soloqy:

What the hell is Halloween?

see, nigerians dont know about halloween.
this has nothing to do with us, wetin concern us with halloween?
if you want to know GOOGLE IT and read it for yourself.
dont listen to some of these morons giving the wrong definition of halloween.

HALLOWEEN IS NOT OUR CULTURE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Besides I think all the masquerade festivals we hold here can suffice for Halloween.
Is it not all about masquerading your face?
Except that in our case murders do not occur !

and where did you get the idea that murders occur on halloween?
youve been watching too many scary movies.
too much Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th, or what?
dude, chill. lol

SEFAGO:

idiot. See how christianity is breeding a society of mindless zombies.

So whats does a scumbag like you got to say?

THE-AMAKA:

and where did you get the idea that murders occur on halloween?
youve been watching too many scary movies.
too much Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th, or what?
dude, chill. lol

Well that's really the spice in Halloween, movies or no movies and oh btw have u seen this [url=http://m.uk.yahoo.com/_ylt=AnVVBC0XqUHrf5UsutNwST49pax_;_ylu=X3oDMTNoOWJtNGdqBGEDTWFuLXF1aXp6ZWQtb3Zlci1IYWxsb3dlZW4tbXVyZGVycwRjcG9zAzEEZwNpZC03NTAzBGludGwDdWsEcGtndgM3BHBvcwMyBHNlYwN0ZC1mZWF0BHNsawN0aXRsZQRzbHBvcwNGBHRlc3QDNzAy/SIG=12scsk32u/**http%3A//uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091102/tuk-halloween-murders-police-quiz-man-6323e80.html]
http://m.uk.yahoo.com/_ylt=AnVVBC0XqUHrf5UsutNwST49pax_;_ylu=X3oDMTNoOWJtNGdqBGEDTWFuLXF1aXp6ZWQtb3Zlci1IYWxsb3dlZW4tbXVyZGVycwRjcG9zAzEEZwNpZC03NTAzBGludGwDdWsEcGtndgM3BHBvcwMyBHNlYwN0ZC1mZWF0BHNsawN0aXRsZQRzbHBvcwNGBHRlc3QDNzAy/SIG=12scsk32u/**http%3A//uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091102/tuk-halloween-murders-police-quiz-man-6323e80.html[/url]

man. . . . . life is too scary out here; why add to it, pls!

Halloween is simply ojuju calabar

Why we wan dey celebrate demons from oyinbo land?

When we get plenty of our own demons that are already putting us into a failed state!

na woah, Jesus wept, this is not our culture now? though some labanise and chines that are everywhere in calabar do celebrate it , but common the stuff to me is demonic.

There are many things for us to celebrate,

eyo,igunu,ekpe,nnaboh and odas,9ja neva celebrate em finish,em don pack every money for budget ontop make em con jion halo-weytin.

Halloween in 9ja? copy-copy.

HALLOWEEN

@Poster, go your village, gather all the Evil men and native doctors, arrange lots of palm wine and celebrate HALLOWEEN.
By the time u travel back(that is, if them go allow u reach house), u go don fat pass LUKOZOONA.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween ke? Everyday na Halloween 4 naija na! U nor dey see people face? Suffer don hammer us so tey our face na Halloween on im own!

My brother, it cannot be feasible in naija! People will just capitalize on it and carry their devious acts!

And for ur info, ojuju calabar na haloween for naija!

Halloween had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle.

The festival observed at this time was called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living. On that day all manner of beings were abroad: ghosts, fairies, and demons--all part of the dark and dread.

Samhain became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people. In the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., before missionaries such as St. Patrick and St. Columcille converted them to Christianity, the Celts practiced an elaborate religion through their priestly caste, the Druids, who were priests, poets, scientists and scholars all at once. As religious leaders, ritual specialists, and bearers of learning, the Druids were not unlike the very missionaries and monks who were to Christianize their people and brand them evil devil worshippers.

As a result of their efforts to wipe out "pagan" holidays, such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations in it. In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship.

Samhain, with its emphasis on the supernatural, was decidedly pagan. While missionaries identified their holy days with those observed by the Celts, they branded the earlier religion's supernatural deities as evil, and associated them with the devil. As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered evil worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits. The Celtic underworld inevitably became identified with the Christian Hell.

The effects of this policy were to diminish but not totally eradicate the beliefs in the traditional gods. Celtic belief in supernatural creatures persisted, while the church made deliberate attempts to define them as being not merely dangerous, but malicious. Followers of the old religion went into hiding and were branded as witches.

The Christian feast of All Saints was assigned to November 1st. The day honored every Christian saint, especially those that did not otherwise have a special day devoted to them. This feast day was meant to substitute for Samhain, to draw the devotion of the Celtic peoples, and, finally, to replace it forever. That did not happen, but the traditional Celtic deities diminished in status, becoming fairies or leprechauns of more recent traditions.

The old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely. The powerful symbolism of the traveling dead was too strong, and perhaps too basic to the human psyche, to be satisfied with the new, more abstract Catholic feast honoring saints. Recognizing that something that would subsume the original energy of Samhain was necessary, the church tried again to supplant it with a Christian feast day in the 9th century. This time it established November 2nd as All Souls Day--a day when the living prayed for the souls of all the dead. But, once again, the practice of retaining traditional customs while attempting to redefine them had a sustaining effect: the traditional beliefs and customs lived on, in new guises.

All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. The folk continued to propitiate those spirits (and their masked impersonators) by setting out gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe'en--an ancient Celtic, pre-Christian New Year's Day in contemporary dress.

Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient Celtic day of the dead. Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, but each one has a history, or at least a story behind it. The wearing of costumes, for instance, and roaming from door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these dreadful creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called mumming, from which the practice of trick-or-treating evolved. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises. Halloween also retains some features that harken back to the original harvest holiday of Samhain, such as the customs of bobbing for apples and carving vegetables, as well as the fruits, nuts, and spices cider associated with the day.

Today Halloween is becoming once again and adult holiday or masquerade, like mardi Gras. Men and women in every disguise imaginable are taking to the streets of big American cities and parading past grinningly carved, candlelit jack o'lanterns, re- enacting customs with a lengthy pedigree. Their masked antics challenge, mock, tease, and appease the dread forces of the night, of the soul, and of the otherworld that becomes our world on this night of reversible possibilities, inverted roles, and transcendency. In so doing, they are reaffirming death and its place as a part of life in an exhilarating celebration of a holy and magic evening.